Monday, July 31, 2017

I'm not one for "Pretty" clothes, but every now and then I enjoy putting on a old-fashioned midi skirt and heels and feeling "Pretty". This is an outfit I wore on an afternoon date with my husband. I first wore it out to breakfast and church, then we went on a stroll along the Eau Claire River Walk. I plan on doing a travel post on that soon because it has been recently completed and it is absolutely gorgeous!

My skirt is new this season, it is from CJBanks. I bought it at the same time I purchased my blue chambray skirt HERE, and yes, this one is also a tad too big, but I think it will be an easy fix. I just have to open up the elastic waist and make it tighter.

It is an absolutely gorgeous skirt. I love the color! It has an beautiful embossed and eyelet detail in the hemline that is hard to see in the photos.

I purchased this skirt for only $14.99 when CJBanks was having a huge sale. If you think you'd like to shop at CJBanks but they are a bit on the high side for you, sign up for their emails. They have regular sales and clearance prices that are absolutely amazing! I wouldn't be able to buy anything there if it wasn't for their sales!

I wore my skirt with a white eyelet top from JCPenney (old) to coordinate with the eyelet in the hem of the skirt. I added a sun hat (old, JCP) and white sunglasses (old, JCP) because we were outside walking in the sun.

My sling back wedge sandals are super old, and super comfortable. I was able to wear them for most of the day, but I did bring a pair of sneakers to change into in case they started to get uncomfortable. See that look below.

Monday, July 24, 2017

I'm going to take a brief summer break to visit my kids and spend some time with my new granddaughter! Ashley, my daughter, snapped these pictures with her camera phone. Isn't Alethea just priceless? I love the tutu and the rose printed sheets!

We plan on doing a creative, fun 1-month old baby photo shoot with my DSLR while I'm visiting. That should be so much fun!

I just love this yawning picture with her arm outstretched. Could she be any cuter?

Just too sweet. I can't wait to hold her in my arms again.

I'll be down there three days and although we have plans to do a little bit of shopping we mostly plan on taking long walks through local parks as Ashley said the baby has been very colicky. She said when she's not sleeping or eating she's "screaming bloody murder". Hopefully when "Mamy" is there, I can soothe her so mom can get some rest. Ashley did say that she eliminated dairy from her diet and Alethea had a better day...so maybe that was the culprit.

Friday, July 21, 2017

In last week Friday's Fashion Post, I showed you an old, short chambray skirt. That is my usual style, and one I feel most comfortable in. However, there are times when I feel a longer skirt is more appropriate so I wanted to buy a longer version. I found this skirt on sale at CJBanks for only $14.99 so I ordered it.

I was afraid a longer chambray skirt might look too frumpy on me, so I styled it with more trendy pieces. I chose a silver metallic tee (old, The Gap), modern silver jewelry, a striped bag with funky red glasses on it, and silver sandals.

I'm one of the few fashion bloggers who hates to shop on line because I never know what size I am. I swear I wear a different size in every item, every store, every brand. Ugh! Anyway, I have a thick waist so I thought I'd try a size 6 instead of a 4 but of course when it arrived, it was too big. I forgot sizes at stores that cater to older women tend to run bigger. I debated returning it, but I'm just not one of those people. I hate to return anything.

This is one of my favorite tee shirts I ever bought! It is so edgy yet classic at the same time. It really adds a lot to trendy twist to any outfit. I bought it at the suggestion of a helpful sales clerk, otherwise, I don't think I would have even noticed it as it's not my usual style. He pointed them out to me and said they just got them in, I tried it on, and it was love at first sight!

The necklace was a gift from my daughter.

I kept the silver theme going with a modern silver bracelet and rings.

The skirt has an elastic, drawstring waist, so it's very comfy!!! The A-Line cut of the skirt plus the soft fabric also make the skirt very comfortable to wear. And it has pockets! Yes, who doesn't love pockets? It was so easy to shop in this outfit all day because I had long deep pockets to drop my car keys in instead of the bottom of my purse where I'd have to hunt for them later!

My bag, also from CJBanks (old, no longer available) you've seen hundreds of times. I do have plenty of other bags, but I don't know, there's something special about this bag...it just goes with everything and has become the bag I always grab when heading out the door.

I wore silver metallic sandals on my feet (old).

Because it was one size too big, there is a little extra fabric in the small of my back and hip/butt area. I thought of shortening the skirt just a tad so it just touches the top of my knee, but it seems like a lot of work. What do you think? Hem it or leave it alone? Or, should I have just returned it because it's a little big? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

Overall I really do like the skirt as an alternative to wear for my shorter chambray skirt. My husband, not so much. He wasn't a fan.

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

A few weekends ago my husband and I went to the Ellsworth Cheese Festival. We had never been there before and we didn't know quite what to expect, but eh, we love cheese curds so let's give it a try!

The Festival is a two day event held every the last full weekend in June to celebrate the town's destination as the Cheese Curd Capitol of Wisconsin.

Ellsworth is about an hours drive from our home in Northwestern Wisconsin. The Festival was held at East End Park, but the Ellsworth Creamery was also open so we stopped there first.

It was quite an impressive creamery. There is a retail store inside where we purchased a delicious smoked cheddar spread and some ice cream...but more on that later!

After checking out the Creamery Store, we left our car in the parking lot there and walked over to the festival. It was a short walk, but they also had wagons come and pick visitors up for free too.

Although it was a chilly day (I can't believe I'm saying that in summer) we enjoyed the walk to the festival because we got to see a little bit of the historic town. We thought this little bar painted in Green Bay Packer colors was just the cutest!

Because it is a two day event, there are different activities scheduled throughout the weekend. We were there on a Saturday morning and just missed the pancake breakfast, darn! But we did get to see the Antique Tractor Show.

Here's a couple of my personal favorites:

The purple tractor stole my heart! Winner!

There were lots of activities for the children like face or body painting.

A maze of hay bales...although I think the kids practically destroyed all the bales by the time we saw it. They were still having fun though!

A corn sandbox. My husband thought this was a great idea. Me, not so much. All the critters in our yard would want to eat the corn!

And our favorite children's activity of all...the train! We thought this was the cutest thing. The engine portion of the train is a tractor that's made up to look like a train engine and all the train cars are barrels. How fun eh?

The "Engineer" just drove around the kids all around the park. They had so much fun!

Seriously, whoever though of this idea and created it is a genius!

Besides children's activities, they also had arts and crafts vendors. This little log cabin held festival items for sale inside.

In addition to all the regular children's activities and arts and crafts vendors, they also had plenty of food vendors. We thought this pizza vendor with his portable wood stove was quite interesting.

But we were there to try the Fried Cheese Curds, so off we went to the food tent. Here they are breading, frying, and placing the finished curds in little baskets.

They had three different kinds of fried cheese curds available along with multiple dipping sauces.

We chose the plain hand dipped deep friend cheese curds, and oh my, they were delicious! In fact, they were the best cheese curds I ever had in my life. We loved them so much we wanted to buy more, but the line was so ridiculously long we didn't want to stand in it again.

After sampling the fried cheese curds we headed out to find more food. I must say, we were disappointed that there were no more cheese curd dishes/options when we were there. It says on their website that there is a "wide variety of cheese curd dishes" but we didn't see anything other than the fried cheese curds. So we chose food from one of the vendors but we were not happy with that meal. It was advertised as "Traditional Greek Food" but it was probably the worst gyro I had in my life. Oh, well, onto dessert!

At the time of day we were at the festival, The "Meet a Farmer Milk and Cookie Pairing" was going on. Later in the afternoon was an "Ice Cream Tasting" (darn, missed it!). But the milk and cookie pairing was fun. For $1.00 you received the tiniest little portion of whole milk plus a cookie. The farmer pointed out that most chocolate milk is made with low-fat milk and you rarely find it made with whole milk. He said it makes a huge difference in taste, and he was right!

The festival also had musical guests, and cooking demos, but again, since we were there in the morning, we missed all of those. I think if we go back next year, we will have to pay closer attention to the schedule and arrive at the festival when they are doing activities we are interested in.

I should also mention that in addition to the Milk and Cookie Tasting and the Ice Cream Tasting the festival also has a Corks & Kegs Tasting. For $25.00 you can taste over 40 craft beers, wines, and hard ciders from the Midwest plus sample unlimited appetizers. My husband and I do not drink alcohol, so we didn't participate in this activity.

After we had seen everything there was to see at the time of day we were there, we decided to head back to the Creamery to buy some cheese to take home and get some ice cream. They served ice cream inside the Creamery store. My husband got a sundae and I got a vanilla malt, and it was delicious! And, I have to take a minute to promote the Ellsworth Creamery Cheese Spread. If you're ever in Ellsworth you have to stop and buy this spread! IT IS SO GOOD! I purchased the smoked cheddar and I ate it up in a few days all by myself. The flavor is so good, but what I enjoyed the most was the texture. It spread on a cracker like butter!

The Creamery had picnic tables set outside the store. Our table was right next to this gorgeous mural. Isn't it wonderful? I love how it has the Creamery in the far left, the date the Creamery was established, and all the things Wisconsin is known for: rolling hills, blue skies, cows, and dairy farms!

We had such a fun time at the Ellsworth Cheese Curd Festival despite a few disappointments. The fried cheese curd line was unbearably long. They only had one fryer going and a handful of volunteers working. It was a long wait when we were there in the morning, but when we were leaving the festival the line was four times longer! It was a shame, because we would have loved to had bought more, but we didn't want to stand in that long line.

Another disappointment was that I was expecting a lot of cheese curds options for sale or to taste at the festival, and there wasn't anything. There were a handful of samples at the Creamery, but I didn't see anything at the Festival. Now, maybe I was there at the wrong time...I don't know. But I think if you are going to call yourself a "Cheese Curd Festival" there should be lots of cheese curd food dishes, and tons of variety of cheese curds to purchase. Maybe even a demo or film or educational booth detailing how cheese curds are made? Or how about a factory tour at the Creamery? And what about cows? Wouldn't it be fun to have a pen of some live cows, calves, or goats for the children to pet?

So would I go back...yes, just for those fried cheese curds...they were delicious. Except next time I will order more than one basket! And I would also check the calendar of events ahead of time to make sure I'm there when the activities I want to see are going on.

Monday, July 17, 2017

This past spring, I found the cutest Liz Claiborne peplum and eyelet top at JCPenney . I've worn it once with white shorts to go shopping, but I never took pictures of that outfit so I did not do a fashion post. The second time I styled it with khaki pull-on-ankle pants and wore it to church.

It really is a darling top because it is structured so it gives the waist line more definition. Plus, I love all the extra details like the eyelet, and the extra fold of fabric along the button line to keep the bust-gaping at bay!

It is eyelet, so you have to wear a tank underneath. I chose a nude tank the same color as my pants to keep the long silhouette going. I left the top un-buttoned a bit because I wanted to show off my statement necklace.

The eyelet detail really is so pretty. The only drawback I've seen to this top so far is that it does wrinkle easily. Both times I wore it I ironed it before leaving the house and it got wrinkled in the car.

I also really like the peplum design compared to a standard blouse. If you struggle with a thick waist like I do, this style of top really helps give an illusion of a waistline.

For accessories, in addition to the white and gold statement necklace (old, Stitch Fix), I also wore a white and gold bracelet (very old), a straw fedora, and I carried my striped CJBanks handbag.

My pants are new this season from Ross. They are by Vince Camuto and I last showed them to you HERE.

If your interested in this top, it's still available and on sale for only $14.40. (Edited to add: Looks like it was just a weekend sale. The top is back to regular price of $36.00) It also comes in white. Just click the link above. For size reference, I'm wearing a Medium.

Happy Mother's Day! I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day in spite of the circumstances we are all living under now. It ta...

Disclaimer

This site uses cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyze traffic. It also shares information about your use of this site with social media, advertising and analytics partners.